Rate My Professor Xuan Zhuang

Zhuang has secured major funding, including approximately $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to study gene-environment interactions in metabolism and disease susceptibility using outbred and inbred Drosophila populations under varied diets. She also received a $436,000 NIH R15 grant for 'Dissecting cryptic genetic variation underlying complex traits in Drosophila,' supporting three years of research with an inducible genetic defect model. Earlier, AIMRC pilot awards in 2021 and 2022 enabled development of Drosophila models for insulin deficiency and diet-induced diabetic traits. In 2023, she was named a Connor Faculty Fellow by Fulbright College, receiving $6,000 for faculty development. Key publications include 'Molecular mechanism and history of non-sense to sense evolution of antifreeze glycoprotein gene in northern gadids' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019), 'Diverse origins of near-identical antifreeze proteins in unrelated fish lineages provide insights into evolutionary mechanisms of new gene birth and protein sequence convergence' (Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2024), 'A comprehensive description and evolutionary analysis of 22 grouper (Perciformes, Epinephelidae) mitochondrial genomes with emphasis on two novel genome organizations' (PLoS ONE, 2013), and 'ND6 gene “lost” and found: evolution of mitochondrial gene rearrangement in Antarctic notothenioids' (Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2010). Her scholarship has garnered over 660 citations, advancing knowledge of new gene origination, protein convergence, and environmental adaptations.